Hair rollers of many different constructions have been well known to the hair treatment and styling field. Many are not sufficiently heat conductive to enable satisfactory hair curling. A hair roller should be light in weight and capable of maintaining its shape when wound with hair and subjected to the heat of a hair dryer during use. The hair roller should be capable of absorbing high heat from a hair dryer when wound with hair and, as well, quickly transmitting the heat to the hair. Accordingly, the hair roller should be highly heat conductive yet should avoid become excessively hot so as to pose a danger of burning either the hair or scalp of the subject being treated or the operator's hands during the process of setting the subject's hair during drying or styling thereof.
Past proposals to assure that the hair roller maintains its shape under exposure to high heat and moisture, as well as the tightness with which the hair strands to be treated are often wound around the hair roller. Under such conditions, light-weight hair rollers often tend to at least partially collapse loosing their shape and causing the wound hair to loosen, perhaps shifting its position along the hair roller. Avoidance of such occasion requires the use of fastening means, such as clips or hair-pins, increasing the weight of the wound hair roller. Considering the substantial number of hair-wound hair rollers which are employed in the setting and drying of hair for styling thereof, the weight of the total employed results in considerable discomfort to the subject being treated, and, as well, increases the length of time the subject must undergo the heating procedure.
In addition, many hair rollers are provided with highly heat conductive materials, such as solid heat conducting cores, such as formed of relatively thick heat conductive metals or solid rods to increase the heat conductivity of the hair roller. This solution to the heat conductivity problem has the disadvantage of increasing the weight and/or bulk of the hair roller limiting their use at least partially because of their weight and/or bulk.
Another problem faced with many of the presently available hair rollers is the difficulty encountered in maintaining engagement of the hair strands to the roller. The hair, even though wound apparently securely to the roller, often will loosen, portions separating from the roller or shifting position along the hair roller prior, during or immediately following the conclusion of the treatment process when portions of the wound hair can separate from the hair roller. Constructions utilizing the Velcro-type or hook and pile materials have been proposed for holding the hair onto the hair roller. Such materials may require greater heat conductivity to be achieved since heat leakage is often encountered due to the increased porosity of the available structures. Further, maintaining such materials onto the hair roller often requires the use of adhesives for holding these materials in place. While advantageous as solutions for some encountered problems, the other problems are incurred. The ability to utilize such materials efficiently has been a goal in the design and construction of hair rollers. Likewise, efficient use of high heat conductivity materials with satisfactory heat retention characteristics and structural consistency while avoiding the above described problems, also has been an unmet goal in this art.
Many available hair rollers are limited to a pair of cylindrical elements, one to secure hair to the second element. Loss of one or the other of these individual elements often is encountered so that many excessive number may be required to be on hand for replacement use over a period of time. Additionally, the two element hair rollers have experienced inadequate heat transfer from the heat source to the hair. Even rollers which are heated by multiple heating rod units or by immersion in heated moisture chambers have not sufficiently solved the problem of satisfactory heat retention over the distance from the heating source to the hair, that is, preserving the heated hair rollers against heat loss. Preservation of good heat transfer is essential. Some offered solutions to this problem have been to insert a high heat conductor within the hair roller in a form where a tubular the heat conductor expands its diameter to press upon the surrounding tubular holder around which the hair strands are wound. This requires provision of a relatively thick tubular holder. Then, there is the difficulty of securing the hair to the holder. One solution offered is to provide unitary teeth molded as a part of the exterior of the tubular holder. However means must be provided to hold the heat conductor in place within the holder. The weight of the resulting holder then becomes a disadvantage.
In addition, there has been difficulty in holding the hair strands to the hair roller. So-called hook and pile means, such as embodied in Velcro (a registered trademark of American Velcro) type material have been utilized. Some applications of Velcro-type material have involved full coverage of the outer surface of the hair roller. This has found to restrict the flow of heat to the hair and/or unevenly to distribute the heat flow unevenly over the extent of the hair carried by the hair roller. Other efforts have provided for direct contact between the heat transfer medium and the hair supported thereon. Such efforts may result in instances the hair rollers become too hot to handle and/or cause damage to the hair and possible injury to the operators.
It also would be advantageous to provide a lightweight efficient hair roller which is economical to manufacture and, as well, which could be manufactured to provide varied sizes without sacrificing weight limitations, het conductivity characteristics or their shape retaining capabilities. The manufacturing process for the hair rollers should be easily capable of producing hair rollers having the varied number of sizes required without material change of the manufacturing procedure and should be capable of mass production.
Among the examples of hair rollers offered by the prior art, attention is directed to the following:
______________________________________ Frederics 1,827,785 Prince et al 3,723,219 Leasure 4,025,375 Catania 3,073,318 Thomas et al 4,330,351 Denebeim 5,515,874 Kim 5,660,192 Denebeim 5,515,874 Dietze 5,713,380 Solomon 3,540,357 DeMystral 3,267,942 Simons 5,286,949 Calandra 3,675,663 Glucksman 4,569,360 ______________________________________
Solomon provides a hair roller having a perforated cylindrical tubular open-ended metal core as a supporting member and a woven fabric layer of heat resistant material disposed about the outer circumferencial surface of said metal core, the woven fabric layer having yieldable hooks extending outwardly therefrom releasably to catch and hold the strands of hair in use as well as to hold the roller securely in position upon the hair. The core is formed of heat conductive metal such as aluminum, brass or even steel. The material layer when applied to the core has abutting longitudinal opposite edges defining a seam which is secured as by sewing to itself so as to form a tubular sleeve on the core or may be linearly slidably mounted on the core. The thus constructed cylindrical woven fabric material layer move longitudinally along the core unless adhesively secured on the core. The woven fabric material can be formed of a single longitudinal layer or can be formed of individual longitudinal layers arranged side by side with different hook configurations carried by the central sleeve and the end sleeves respectively. The Solomon hair roller has core extensions for the purpose of heating. The hooks appear constituted as Velcro type split-loops. The metal core is intimately engaged with the heating element. Solomon even suggests a solid core element for bottom heating and increased heat conduction.
With Solomon, the hair roller is formed of two elements, the heat conducting core and the heat resistant outer sleeve which can be slidably engaged longitudinally on the core. The outer hooks are arranged in bands along the longitudinal length of the fabric layer with the end bands being thicker, leaving areas of exposed fabric material. The adherence of the spaced hooks may not be as satisfactory as having a continuous hooked layer without a spaced array along the longitudinal length of the roller.
Opposite ends of the core are exposed when the material layer is applied thereto. Apparently, while heat is conducted from the inner core, the outer sleeve carrying the hooks may be too heat retentive. The fabric defines a relatively heavy slidable member which retains heat while the bands of hooks are said to help in maintaining the shape of the hair roller. The fabric layer covers the core and has raised pile threads with hook-shaped yieldable ends. The core is heat conductive and yet retains heat instead of transmitting such heat to the hair wound upon the outer layer. The core is heavy enough to retain heat and hence not only is a relatively poor heat transmitter but adds considerable weight to the hair roller, as does the relatively thick conductive metal layer when employed. Many metals, such as aluminum, brass and steel are employed in such thickness as will achieve high heat conductivity. However, such usable results in increased weight so that the increased heat conductivity is outbalanced by the increased weight.
DeMestral provides a fabric hair roller having an open-ended cylindrical body provided with holes to allow moisture to escape. The body of the DeMystral is formed out of fabric having flexible outwardly extending erect strands provided with ball formations or "bulges" at their ends. Warp filament threads, preferably formed of nylon, are provided in the fabric strip to form the foundation of the fabric so that the body is "suffiently" rigid to maintain its shape. These threads are formed into reinforcement rings spaced along the longitudinal length of the body, and can have a large section which can be distributed over the whole length of the body as reinforcement. The body is said to be collapsible yet elastic enough to resume its cylindrical shape after collapse. However, the DeMystral unit is not heat conductive and hence is limited to be used in consort with a hair dryer--simply functioning to hold the hair curl in place under a hair dryer.
Another hair roller is proposed by Frederics which is formed of a perforated outer tube of heat transmitting metal foil and an inner tube of paper. The roller is slidably placed over hair strands which are wound upon a circular mandrel which is the heat source, the inner paper sleeve has bands which are gas impervious and bands which are gas previous, the heated gases in the mandrel apparently comprise the heat source and serves to support the roller in use. This proposed hair roller is believed non-practical for use with the modern type of multiple rod heaters. No support sleeve is provided. A woven porous outer sleeve is provided which carry hair retaining hooks for holding hair strands on the roller. Heat is transferred directly through the hair without space being provided between the hair and the heat conductor--the outer metal sleeve. Teachings were absent that would teach the provision of a material comprising a multilayer sandwich material formed into a hair roller. Catania provides a hair roller formed of a spiral wire "tube" enclosing a brush with a twisted member having a plurality of outwardly extending bristles. A crossed mesh member is disposed upon the spiral wire with the bristles extending therethrough. The bristles are intended to function to hold the hair strands in position as the hair is wound around the spiral lattice wire shell. However, the bristles to not appear to function efficiently to hold the hair strands in position on the Catania wire shell. However, Catania's arrangement requires particularly structured, articulated clip-on members which are required to retain the hair which is wound upon the roller. The special hair clip is a necessary component of the combination provided by Catania and is provided with means to pass through the spiral wire tube to aid in maintaining the hair in position as well as performing their apparently prime function of connecting the hair rollers one to the other. The Catania hair clip not only is alleged to retain the hair in position but secures a pair of the rollers (with hair wound thereon) together one alongside the other or end to end. The securement of the hair rollers to each other in such manner is an essential element of the combination taught by Catania. The roller itself is likely to lose its shape notwithstanding its structure being formed as open latice-work. With the spiral wire, there also is a likelihood that the roller would lose its shape in handling. No provision is made to provide satisfactory heat conduction from the interior of the roller outward to the hair where the hair is wound held in place on the outer shell.
Thomas et al provides a hair setting roller formed of an outer, generally cylindrical cage formed of resilient plastic material, the cage comprising a pair of end rings and a plurality of longitudinal strips spaced one from the other about the circumference of the cage. The strips are provided with bristle-like projections for gripping the hair wound about the cage. An inner core is introduced into the cage. The inner core is fabricated from a heat retaining material and is adapted to be inserted into the cage. The inner core is hollow and is adapted to be fitted onto an electrically heated post or peg of a multi-curler heating device. As mentioned above, the core is a heat retaining device not a heat conductive device. Preferably, said core is hollow and is adapted to contain a heat-retaining fluid of high thermal capacity. The hair is wound around the cage and a hair-pin is introduced through the wound hair into the cage to trap the hair. The hair-pin is held by the longitudinal strips of the outer cage, contacting the core tangentially. Again, while there is heat provided, any heat conductive metal element is absent.
Benebeim provides a hair styling arrangement comprising a spherical body formed of a pair of outer hemispheres formed of plastic material, the body having a Velcro material covering at least a portion of the outer surface of the plastic spherical body. A interior body of light-weight thermally conductive metal is positioned within the plastic outer body and has an axial passage therethrough for receiving a heating-element. The hemispherical halves of the body have a central opening and are assembled to form the spherical body with the interior metal sphere therein. Notwithstanding the hook-shaped gripping elements of the Velcro coating carried by the outer spherical body, the hair is held in place by a spring clip. The resultant spherical hair curler is clearly distinct from a cylindrical hair roller in function and operation.
Dietze has provided a cylindrical hair roller having a plastic core with Velcro tape wound around it and one of a metal, metal-coated, metallized carbon or anti-static filaments arranged as a shield over the surface of the cylindrical core, the filaments being wound over the plastic core. No highly heat conductive element is included.
Kim provides a self-sticking hair roller having a solid core formed of a closed cell foam and a self-gripping tape which covers or sheaths the roller around the center portion thereof, the tape is provided with a wide ring pushed onto the cylindrical core having Velcro-like outwardly projecting hooks or bristle like protrusions but still covers only the central portion of the roller leaving considerable hook-free space inward of both ends of the roller.
Kim's tape is pushed in the form of the wide ring onto the soft-foam plastic roller core and retained thereon due to its annular width which is adapted to a respective diameter of the roller. Kim does suggest additional fastening of the central band by adhesive bonding or welding. Kim also suggests the self-gripping tape can be formed with "mushroom" protrusions which can be formed into mushroom shaped hooks by heating. The bristles function simply to retain the hair strands in position as same are wound around the spiral wire outer shell the hair strands to the rollowerwhere clip-on members which can pass through the spiral wire tube and grasp hair strands.
Simons provides a hair roller formed of a thick walled hollow imperforate cylinder having an enlarged head portion and a perforate molded cage suitable for slidable engagement on the thick-walled imperforte cylinder. Simons suggests that the exterior surface of the cage can carry flocking, bristles or hook & pile material on its outer surface as an intimate part thereof. While hook & pile material is mentioned, there appears no teaching as how to provide same other than binding it to the exterior surface of the cage. The cage is a plastic molded member having nothing to do with the heating of the roller or heat transfer to the hair.
The Simons roller is heated by moist hot air and then has hair strands and then has hair strands wound thereon. A resilient hair-clip is provided to claim on the roller and hair wound thereon after the hair is applied to the purpose of holding hair in place on the roller. There is no high heat conductive intermediate medium, layer or material, between the thick hollow central cylinder. The recited purpose of the structure is to provide for good heat retention. Provision for assuring good heat transfer to the hair does not appear to be made. The hair-grasping means for holding the hair to the roller body is simply a coating providing hair-grasping hook-shaped "fingers" on the exterior surface of the perforate roller, said "fingers" and surface which requires cooperation with the resilient clip to hold the hair in place after the hair has been wound on the perforate roller. The resilient clip is provided with a coating of "hair-grasping" material on its inner surface, said coated inner surface performs no other purpose but to bind it to the exterior surface of the cage which is a plastic molded member having nothing to do with the heating of the roller or heat transfer to the hair.
Simons fails to suggest a third, outer sleeve or equivalent element. There is no outer sleeve in Simons which is secured to the inner cage and functions as a hair grasping member, as well as means to protect the user against handling the hot hair roller. The enlarged head provided on the thick walled cylinder functions to support the hair roller while it is seated in a rack within the heating chamber (or box). The clip suggested by Simons does not contribute to heat transfer to the hair. The clip is provided to hold the user's hair in place on the roller. There is no metal intermediate sleeve, layer or material between the thick hollow central cylinder. While there is provision for heat transfer, there is no provision for assuring good heat conduction to the hair. The hair-grasping means provided by Simons for holding the hair to the roller body is simply a coating on the exterior surface of the roller body, said coating providing hair-grasping hook-shaped "fingers" on the exterior surface of the perforate roller body which requires cooperation with the resilient clip to hold the hair in place. Note that the "hair-grasping" material does not function as an outer sleeve of a concentrically arranged three sleeve hair roller body including a inner plastic support sleeve, an intermediate highly heat conductive sleeve and an outer hair-grasping plastic woven sleeve carrying hair-grasping flexible hook-shaped filaments.
Calandra provides a hair roller construction comprising a cylindrical mandrel made of plastic. A Velcro fabric composed of spiral alternating lengths of side by side hook and pile wound "fabric" is applied to the exterior surface of the mandrel in a band adjacent the opposite ends of the perforate mandrel, a portion of such "fabric" extends over the edge of the opposite ends of the mandrel and extends a considerable distance within the inner surface of the mandrel engaged with said inner surface, providing means to secure the rollers one to the others, either "end to end" or "side to side" or both. The "fabric" does not function as "hair-grasping means", and, in fact, the hair is not held by this hook and pile material. No means for improving heat conductivity to the hair wound around the mandrel other than the perforations carried by the mandrel. Calandra does comprise only two members, the perforate sleeve (the mandrel) and the hook and pile outer end strips of the spiral wound hook and pile strips at the opposite ends of said mandrel. No inner support for the mandrel is provided.